Jackson was feted a day ahead of the convention’s official launch on Monday, when he’ll be honored onstage at the United Center alongside his son and fellow delegate Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill.
As Democrats prepare to celebrate the first Black woman at the top of the presidential ticket this week in Chicago, progressive leaders on Sunday reflected on the monumental legacy of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the trail he blazed that could help lead Kamala Harris to the White House.
“The reason Kamala Harris is going to be nominated starts right in this building,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said during a tribute to Jackson hosted at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s convention at the organization’s Kenwood headquarters. “It starts right with this man. It has been a long journey, but the one that brought us this far, was Jesse Louis Jackson.”
Though Jackson’s mighty voice has been largely silenced by a progressive case of Parkinson’s disease, Sharpton declared “every time we march, Jesse Jackson is walking.
“When you see Kamala Harris up on that stage this week, Jesse Jackson is on that stage,” Sharpton said during the tribute sponsored by The Nation magazine ahead of the Democratic National Convention. “He’s sitting there watching the results of his work. There wouldn’t be no ‘us’ if it wasn’t for him.”
Jackson was feted a day ahead of the convention’s official launch on Monday, when he’ll be honored onstage at the United Center alongside his son and fellow delegate Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill.
The start of Sunday’s evening program was delayed more than 20 minutes as Yusuf Jackson, another one of the civil rights leader’s sons, pleaded with supporters who crowded around the elder Jackson to take their seats.
